Thursday, 28 November 2013

Meet Kayla

I hope you have all been well. It's been hectic at my house for the last few weeks, let me tell you. And it started even before Kayla was born.

You see, when I took my leave of the blog, the great process of getting the final things before her birth done started. And along with that, I did some other things, like cleaning, washing the final pieces of her clothing and setting up the Christmas tree (because I didn't want to saddle Jan with the task later).

All was going well. I had the usual pregnancy aches and pains, I was still on my nausea meds (and still vomiting every now and then, which sucked!) and I was waddling along my daily routine awaiting some kind of sign that the day had come. It didn't though.

We went to see the doctor like planned on Thursday, 7 November. It was supposed to be my second to last routine checkup before my due date, which was the next Thursday. When we got there, I asked a question or two about some things I'd noticed during the previous week and the doctor decided to put the heart monitor on my stomach to measure Kayla's heartbeat.

Turns out her heart was beating at a steady pace, but didn't have enough spikes (it's supposed to go up and down as the baby moves and not be beating at the same tempo all the time) and Kayla wasn't moving enough. In fact, in the prior week I'd noticed that she was moving less and less, but I hadn't thought too much of it because she was growing bigger and the space inside the womb smaller. But the doctor wanted me to come back the following day to check the heart again, so we did.

We went back in the following day, the 8th of November, little knowing what was in store for us that day... The monitor had the same results and after a sonar, which revealed some more issues inside the womb, the doctor advised me that we needed to do a c-section and take Kayla out the same day, because he was concerned about her.

Now, if you know me, you know that I wanted to give birth naturally. I was (to be honest) deathly afraid of the c-section and I'd said all along that the only way I was having one was if it was an emergency. And ironically, it turned out to be.

An hour later I was in a hospital bed being prepped and talked through the procedure, and later that afternoon Kayla was delivered. Her umbilical cord had been wound up really tightly, not allowing enough food through to her, which caused her to be so still. Who knows what could have happened if she hadn't been delivered that day?

Now she's almost three weeks old! Having her has changed our lives forever. I could never imagine loving something so small so fiercely. When I held her for the first time, I swore lightning struck me, because I instantly loved her. It's the truest form of love at first sight in the world. People tell you about the instant bond you feel with your baby, but you can't begin to understand it until you've felt it. She's completely stolen both our hearts.

Of course, I can sit here typing up a storm, all about how much I love and adore her, but you probably don't want to read it. So, without further ado, here are some pictures of her. The first was taken within the first hour of her life and the last was taken on Tuesday.

For those of you in the USA, happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a lot to be thankful for this year, I know I do.